


Ansatsubu

by Takabayashi_Ansatsubu



Series: Ansatsubu [1]
Category: Ansatsubu
Genre: Action, Ansatsubu - Freeform, Multi, Other, School Life, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-30 07:27:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5155325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takabayashi_Ansatsubu/pseuds/Takabayashi_Ansatsubu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takabayashi transfers into a new school, but his memories appear to have vanished and the students aren't as normal as they first seem. The story follows Takabayashi's everyday life which is by no means normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Where It All Began

  **Prologue**

Clouds began to form in the sky above the school, there wasn’t a forecast for rain, but it was clear that it was going to pour down soon. A funnel of pitch black smoke rose up from the school building, mixing in with the clouds. Flames dispersed across the classroom floor, engulfing desks, chairs, textbooks… anything that stood in their way. A lone student wandered through the burning building.

“The school building must be on fire…” Takabayashi thought to himself as he tried to manoeuvre his way through the maze of hallways that made up his school, but there was something wrong, other than the school burning that is. Yes… there was something strange about himself, it was as if he was walking on auto-pilot.

He didn’t feel as if he was in control of his own body. Not only that, he was surprisingly calm as the flames danced around his feet, burning everything in their beautiful yet destructive path. There was no reason that he should be calm in this situation, he was in a place where he could die at any moment, where other students HAD already died, yet he just continued walking down the hall as if nothing was wrong. The screams of the other students were a faint noise in the distance to him, even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to help them. He couldn’t even control his own body.

By now the blaze had spread across the entire school, with parts of the older buildings collapsing, crushing everything and everyone beneath them. The smoke began to build up, sweeping its way through the corridors, and filling up Takabayashi’s lungs. He coughed as he continued to walk. He put one foot in front of another, not thinking about anything, as his everyday life smouldered around him. It was as if his thoughts and memories were being burned along with the school. Pieces of wall were now beginning to fall in the hallway Takabayashi was walking through.

“So it’s spread this far…?” -he managed to get out.

There was a sudden crack. A noise so loud that he nearly woke up from this trance like state; the windows next to him had shattered and exploded. Shards of glass flew towards Takabayashi, cutting him at every opportunity, slicing through his skin as if it was nothing. Yet he continued to walk, crimson, warm blood now dripping down his body. 

A light shone its way through the smoke and flames at the other end of the hall. An exit.

“So that’s where I’ve been going” Takabayashi struggled to think to himself, his head in a spin by now.

He stumbled toward the light, still without any control over himself. He reached the door and leant all of his weight against it to force it open. It was surprisingly dark outside, given the light he saw from inside. He collapsed to the ground and looked up at the sky, which had storm clouds forming. The rain began to fall from the clouds and began to soak Takabayashi. It washed the blood from his face, the mix of blood and water formed a stream escaping from his body onto the ground around him.

“I just can’t get a break… huh?” He let out in a weak voice, his mind still a mess.

That’s when he noticed it. The fire that had caused this disaster; it wasn’t a normal blaze, the flames were not the standard orange that you’d expect; they were bright blue.

 

 

**Chapter 1**

 

 

“Stand. Bow. Sit down.” The class representative stated as was customary when the homeroom teacher was about to take the register. This was the start of any ordinary school day, however today was going to be a lot different from usual…

“Ok class…” Kimura-sensei started, he often spoke slowly with gaps in his sentences, his age starting to show in his voice as well as his greying hair. ”We have a transfer student joining us in Class 2-A today-“ He could barely finish before the class erupted in conversation about the transfer student. It wasn’t particularly unusual for a transfer student to join a few weeks into the school year, but it always caused a stir.

“Alright alright, settle down now…” Kimura-sensei finally managed to interject. The class quieted down as the anticipation grew.

“You can come in now” he spoke in the direction of the door, ushering for the student on the other side of the door to enter the room. The wooden door slid to the side and a black haired student walked through the door with a nervous smile on his face. Speech began to rise from the students as they saw the boy walk up to Kimura-sensei. The boy was about average height, and made the schools uniform look like it was designed for him to wear. His eyes were a beautiful blue colour which matched with his tie colour. He was perfect, from an aesthetic point of view, as far as the class could tell. The chatter from the girls increased after seeing how good looking the transfer student was. For them it could be like something out of a manga; romance with the transfer student. Of course, this piqued interest brought on some disdain from the guys in the class… all of this, before he’d even said a word, not even his name.

“You can introduce yourself now.” Kimura-sensei said to the boy standing next to him.

“Ah, ok…” the student said fairly quietly, still a little shocked by the class’ reaction to him. The boy turned to the blackboard, picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the kanji for his name on board.

高林 was what remained on the board; it read as Takabayashi.

The boy turned to face the class with his name behind him.

“Hi… I’m Takabayashi; I look forward to learning with you!” He perked up at the end of the sentence, his nervousness fading. He smiled at the class whilst gazing over his classmates for the next year.

“Takabayashi-kun, you can have the seat at the back there” Kimura-sensei pointed to an empty seat by the window near the back of the classroom.

“Eeeh?! Next to the class rep?! Lucky…” One of the guys in the class let out. The class rep was really popular, not just in 2-A, but across the entire second year. She was an athletic person and had a great personality to boot; someone who you could get along with almost instantly. She had long brown hair that she tied up at the back; mainly because it was convenient after practicing kendo.

Takabayashi walked between the desks to his newly appointed seat, placed his bag on the floor and sat down, just before Kimura-sensei began to talk again.

“Now then, the first period is free study, so try not to cause too much trouble for the new student, okay?” He proceeded to walk out of the classroom. Almost as soon as the classroom door was shut all of the students flew up out of their seats and crowded around Takabayashi asking him question after question. There was so much noise that he could barely make out what they were all saying. A couple of the girls managed to push their way to the front of the group so they could get a closer look at Takabayashi. “Hey, hey, so what do you do in your spare time? Do you play sports? Do you live close to here? Why did you transfer?” The girl didn’t even pause for a breath when firing off the mass of questions. “Ah… ummm…” Takabayashi didn’t know how to react to the upbeat girl and didn’t get an answer out before someone else interjected; “I bet he’s an Ikemen”. “He’s got to be” someone replied” This continued for a while before someone spoke over the rest.

“Calm down guys, he’s going to be in our class for the rest of the year, you’re coming on a bit strong don’t you think? Give him a while to settle in.” Everyone in the classroom looked to the direction that the voice came from. The class rep, sitting next to Takabayashi was the one who had asked the class to quiet down. Everyone had a slight look of guilt on their face and turned back to Takabayashi and apologised almost in unison before sitting back down.

“Sorry about all of them, I’m the class rep Kazuma Hoshi; you can just call me Hoshi”

“Ah, it’s nice to meet you, Hoshi-san” Takabayashi replied, using an honorific since he didn’t want to seem too forward.

“Oh, please, drop the honorific we’re all friends here.” She said with a smile, it was reassuring to the still ever so slightly nervous Takabayashi. “If you ever need anything, feel free to ask me.”

“Thank you!” He replied to the class rep, in a more energetic voice than he had before. He was getting more comfortable as he spoke with her.

Suddenly a voice came from behind the two of them:

“Hey! Hoshi! Introduce us already!”

Takabayashi turned around to see where the voice had originated from. His eyes were greeted with two boys, one with a huge grin on his face, the other just sort of standing there. The one without a particular expression on his face was tall and handsome but what made him really stand out was his light grey hair. Takabayashi assumed he’d dyed it, but it looked too natural for that to be true. The upbeat one who had called out to Hoshi was shorter than the grey haired one, but was roughly the same height as Takabayashi. If it wasn’t for his apparent personality he probably wouldn’t have stood out that much.

The energetic one flung his arm around Hoshi’s shoulder, still from behind, and put his face extremely close to hers, so close that for anyone looking they’d think they were going out. Hoshi let out a sigh and didn’t even turn to look at the two before retorting with:

“And why should he have the misfortune of that?”

“Aww… c’mon, that’s a bit harsh don’t you think…?”

The boy with the light grey hair simply watched all of this as if it was an everyday occurrence… which going by the way the two acted wouldn’t be surprising…

Hoshi let out a sigh, “Fine fine…” She turned to look at Takabayashi. “The annoyingly energetic one here is Sakagami Teito-.” She pointed toward with almost no energy, contrasting with the boy next to her.

Teito, still with his arm around Hoshi looked over to the new student and grinned.

“You can just call me Teito; it’s nice to meet you Taka-kun”

“-and the silent one over there is Takashi Toshiyuki”

He simply replied with a “Hey”

“He really doesn’t talk much, but he’s gets better once he gets to know you more” Teito tried to explain, not really making his friend sound appealing.

“-but he’s a loyal and good friend” Hoshi added after realising how bad Teito had made him sound.

“So, do you live around here?” Teito asked, clearly having a lot of questions in his head for the new student.

“Ah, yeah, it’s about a twenty minute walk from here. I live by myself too, so it’s not the best of places. But I like it” Takabayashi smiled whist thinking of the place he called home. Like he said, he lived alone so he had a small apartment with a decent rent charge.

“That’s quite convenient; I’m surprised you didn’t come here from the start.” Hoshi replied with a hint of jealousy in her voice, most likely at the fact that he lived alone.

“What school did you go to…?” Toshiyuki finally added in, in his monotonous voice.

Takabayashi tried to think about the school that he used to go to, but his mind went blank. The more he tried to think about anything that happened previous to today the more his head began to pound. There was only one image that appeared in his mind and even that was a blur; blue flames, and a silhouette walking out from them.

“Hey, Taka-kun, are you alright?” Takabayashi could just about hear the faint voice as the feeling of light-headedness was getting stronger, nearly to the point of fainting.

Teito put his hand on Takabayashi’s shoulder and gave him a small shake to bring him out of his trance like state.

“Oh… yeah, I’m fine” Takabayashi replied whilst still feeling a little dazed.

“What was that…? And why can’t I remember anything…?” He couldn’t help but ask himself that, who wouldn’t in this situation. He could only remember his name, where he lived and the fact that he was transferring into Aosaka Gakuen today; anything else about his past was obscured in his memory by a haze.

“Maybe you should go and see the school nurse if you’re not feeling well. I’ll take you there if you want?” Hoshi offered, but Takabayashi declined.

“I’m fine, honestly” He was starting to feel better. As long as he wasn’t trying to remember anything then he felt fine.

“Oh oh! Have you decided on a club yet?” Teito butted in, forgetting that Takabayashi hadn’t answered Toshiyuki’s question yet.

“Club?” Takabayashi questioned. It hadn’t even crossed his mind; so far he’d just been focusing on making a good impression to the class.

“Yeah, Aosaka has a rule where you have to be a member of a club” Teito explained.

“It’s meant to be for ‘educational enrichment’ apparently” Toshiyuki added, with some slight annoyance. Toshiyuki wasn’t really one for doing anything other than what he had to. Although not because he was lazy, it was more just that he didn’t see the point.

“Luckily for you though there’s a kendo club, so at least that keeps you entertained” Hoshi retorted back.

“So, what clubs do you all belong to?” Takabayashi was curious to see what clubs his new friends were in.

”Well, Toshiyuki and I are part of the kendo club and-“ Hoshi was again interrupted by Teito. Her patience with him is amazing Takabayashi thought to himself

“I’m a drummer in the music club” Teito exclaimed proudly.

Hoshi saw an opportunity to get back at him for being interrupted all of the time and took it.

“Not a very good one though” She started to laugh slightly and the end of the sentence and even Toshiyuki smiled. Takabayashi couldn’t help but join them when he saw Teito pulling a pouting face.

“Getting back to the topic, Sensei will probably want you to choose one by the end of the week, and no doubt the clubs will all be after you. So you might want to pick one soon” Hoshi informed him.

“We’ll show you around them later! Well, only the main ones. There are a lot of smaller ones but a lot of them are just places for people who don’t want to be in clubs to go. They don’t actually do anything.” Teito never failed to insult someone without meaning to…

“Like the Choujougenshou Kenkyuubu [Supernatural Studies club]” Hoshi added while nodding in agreement.

“Oh, you should probably introduce yourself to the student council president too. You could do that now actually. Her name’s Kaede and she’ll be in the student council office. It’s just left and down the hallway from here.”

“Ah ok, I’ll go now then.” Takabayashi got up and started to walk toward the door “See you guys in a bit” He smiled at his new friends before leaving the room.

Takabayashi slid the door closed behind him and breathed a sigh of relief. He had made a good first impression and made some good friends. That feeling of joy stayed with him while he was walking to the student council room. He looked up at the signs above the doors to see which one it was. Finally he found the room; it was much further than Hoshi had made it sound.

He gripped to handle and took a deep breath before sliding the door open.

“Excuse… me?” The sight that awaited Takabayashi was one that nobody should ever see. The room was a complete mess. There were books everywhere, with a single figure sitting at the large desk in the middle of room. This wasn’t the disturbing part; it was the books themselves that were disturbing. Takabayashi took a glimpse at one of the covers and saw two anime guys making out. As he quickly glanced at the rest of the room he noticed that they were all yaoi manga. The figure reading them was a girl with incredible scruffy hair and was wearing glasses, your stereotypical fujoshi. She was panting whilst flicking through the pages with great speed.

In response to the site Takabayashi just shut the door with a blank expression on his face. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to do after seeing… _that_.

“I must have the wrong room…” he thought to himself and nervously laughed a little. He looked up to check the sign but it did indeed say “Student Council”. His next response was to assume that he had been seeing things. “There’s no way anyone would be reading those kinds of things in school… I’m going mad….” Again, he nervously chuckled to himself before opening the door again. He braced himself, and slid the door open. However this time a different sight greeted him. There were no strange books, the room was completely clean, and an utterly flawless looking student was sat at where the previous figure was.

“Can I help you with something?” Kaede asked the student she hadn’t seen before.

Takabayashi just stood there in disbelief; he couldn’t work out exactly what had just happened.

“Oh, you must be the guy who transferred into 2-A… what was your name again?”

“Ah, it’s Takabayashi. Are you Kaede-senpai?”

“That’s me” She replied with a smile. “Are you alright? You have a bit of a puzzled look on your face”

“Umm… was there someone else in here just a minute ago…?”

“Nope, just me”

“Huh… then… how did the room go back to normal…?”

Under her breath Kaede whispered- “Never underestimate the power of a fujoshi”

“What was that?” Takabayashi asked, not hearing what she had said.

“Nothing nothing.”

She looked the new student up and down, judging him. “Hmmm eight out of ten”

“Eh? I’m only an eight?! Wait, what am I being judged on?!” Takabayashi was completely bewildered by the student council president.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s for a… personal thing…”

Takabayashi looked at her and realised that she must be pretty popular, she was a good looking girl with short, light brown hair and being the student council president would of course mean that a lot of people liked her. Although I’m sure none of them really knew what her true personality was like.

“So, how are you finding Aosaka so far?”

“I quite like it, all the people are really friendly… a little over-friendly in some cases….” He thought back to how he was crowded just now. “I think I’m going to like it here”

“That’s good to hear! Well, I’m always here if you need a hand with getting used to the school. Oh, and remember to choose a club as soon as possible.”

“Will do, thank you, Senpai.” He smiled at her and left the room.

Takabayashi walked back down the corridor to the 2-A classroom, he found it quite uncomfortable walking around a school he barely knew when everybody else was in lessons, the emptiness was unsettling and with only the sound of his footsteps it made for quite an uncomfortable atmosphere.

“Ah, he’s back!” Teito exclaimed in his energetic way as Takabayashi walked through the door. He walked back over to his newly appointed desk and sat down with Hoshi and the others.

“So, did you meet her?” Hoshi asked, slightly laughing.

Takabayashi seemed confused as to why she was laughing but soon realised that Hoshi must have known that he would see Kaede-senpai in her “fujoshi state”.

“You knew… didn’t you?” he said with anger rising in his voice, at which point Hoshi and Teito burst out laughing.

“Sorry sorry, it was just too funny. Not many people know that side of her though, so count yourself as lucky.” Hoshi was still laughing as she said that.

“Lucky…? Really?” Takabayashi couldn’t really find the situation funny after being exposed to… _that_.

Simultaneously everyone in the class’ phone went off. The sudden explosion of ringtones came as quite a surprise to Takabayashi.

“What was that?” He enquired.

“Oh that. That’s our class group chat. We use it so we can speak during lessons and stuff, it’s quite sneaky really”

“It’s the modern day version of passing notes around!”

“Speaking of which, we should probably add you now that you’re part of the class. Pass me your phone” Hoshi offered her hand out to signal him to hand over his phone.

Takabayashi reached into the inside pocket of his blazer and pulled out an iPhone, unlocked it and handed it to Hoshi. She tapped the screen with an amazing pace, clearly experienced with using a touchscreen phone, as all seventeen year olds are, and then handed the phone back to Takabayashi.

“No doubt the chat will explode when people notice you’ve been added… the mute button might come in handy then.” She gently smiled.

Takabayashi laughed “It can’t be that bad… surely”

 

 ~

 

After the next couple of lessons the bell rang to mark the start of lunch, all of the students in 2-A got up and flooded out of the classroom, heading towards the cafeteria to get their lunch.

“They’re in a hurry, aren’t they?” Takabayashi commented.

“Oh, that’s because there’s only a limited amount of the good meal tickets each day, so everyone runs to try and get them.”

“And what about you guys? Don’t you have to get there quickly too?”

“Nah, we all make our own lunches, it’s a lot less stressful” Teito replied whilst taking out a bento box and a pair of chopsticks from his bag.

“We usually eat down there” Hoshi pointed out of the window to the area at the back of the school. Outside there was a generously sized field; unusual for a school so close to the city centre. The sea of green spread as far as Takabayashi could see from their second floor classroom, but there was one thing that was impossible to miss from the sight; the large sakura tree in the middle of the field, and given how it was the start of a new school year it was in full bloom. The pink petals that were falling of this magnificent tree danced in the wind as students started to gather on field.

“Wow…” He was completely in awe of the beauty of the tree.

“We’re gonna head down there now, want to join us?” Teito offered

“Sure!” Takabayashi smiled and the four of them got up and left the classroom.

Luckily there was still a spot left under the tree. The group went and sat down in the shade of the tree and got out their bento boxes. Takabayashi unzipped his bag and reached inside to feel an emptiness where his bento box should have been. While he was wondering what he should do about his lack of lunch another student had walked over to the group. He was slightly shorter than the three guys already there, but taller than Hoshi was. He approached them nervously but not without a complete lack of confidence.

“Ah, Endo’s here!” Teito exclaimed with food still in his mouth.

“You should swallow before speaking” Toshiyuki muttered before picking up an egg roll with his chopsticks.

“Is it alright to eat with you, nee-chan?” The new boy asked, his green eyes glistening in the broken sunlight that got through the tree’s branches and petals. The boy had piercing green eyes that, like Takabayashi’s, matched the colour of his tie. At Aosaka the tie colour denoted the year they were in; green was for a first year, blue for second and red for third.

“Nee-chan?” Takabayashi questioned

“Ah, Takabayashi-kun, this is my younger brother, Endo”

Endo looked Takabayashi directly in the eyes and blushed slightly

“Endo, this is the new transfer student; Takabayashi-kun”

“I-it’s nice to meet you” Endo let out meekly.

“It’s nice to meet you too” Takabayashi gave a warm and friendly smile as Endo sat down with the group. Like the rest, he too pulled a box out from his bag which reminded Takabayashi that he’d forgotten his at home

“Senpai? What’s wrong?” Endo asked, noticing that Takabayashi hadn’t gotten anything to eat out.

“Oh, I kinda forgot my lunch” He scratched the back of his head and laughed from embarrassment.

 “Then, i-if you don’t mind, you can share mine…” Endo trailed off at the end of the sentence.

“Eh? Really?! Takabayashi’s face lit up from the offer. Endo blushed again opened the box. He’d prepared a Western lunch; sandwiches. He offered the box to Takabayashi.

“Then, Itadakimasu!” he took one of the sandwich triangles and took a bite out of it, all the while Endo was watching with anticipation, no doubt wondering what he thought of the sandwiches he’d made.

“…they’re delicious” Takabayashi noted with disbelief, he couldn’t believe that someone their age made something that tasted this good, and a guy at that.

This time it was Endo whose face lit up, “Thanks!” and took one himself. The lunch hour proceeded as usual with various topics of conversation being brought up as well as students from the other classes coming over to meet the new student, it was the normal.

By the end of the day Takabayashi was exhausted and it was only exacerbated by having maths as the final subject of the day.

“I hate this subject” He mumbled to himself as he packed his books up.

“The day’s not over yet, you’ve still got to look at the clubs” Hoshi said to him in a sympathetic voice as she too was packing her stuff away.

Takabayashi just made a tired and uninterested groan.

“Well, how about you just visit the kendo club? Toshiyuki and I are going there now anyway”

“If it’s only that one…” he yawned almost without finishing what he was saying

The three of them said good bye to Teito as they went off in different directions to their respective club rooms. The kendo club practiced in the gym which was usually sectioned into parts for all of the sports clubs to use. Hoshi and Toshiyuki went and put their armour on while Takabayashi waited for them in the gym. The two of them walked out with their shinai (kendo sword) in hand, and took their stances opposite each other. The gym was suddenly filled with the sound of yelling and the crashing of bamboo colliding. It was clear to see that both of them were extremely skilled in kendo, and yet Toshiyuki was just ever so slightly faster and more agile, meaning that it he could easily disarm his opponent by hitting their wrists. And like that, Hoshi was forced to drop her shinai. Out of breath they both bowed and Hoshi picked up her weapon. They walked over to Takabayashi who was watching the whole sparring session.

“So, what did you think?” Toshiyuki asked 

“It was amazing! Your speed was incredible!”

“Yeah, nobody has beaten Toshiyuki in a fight, not even the captain” Hoshi replied, disheartened. “Did you want to have a go?” She offered.

Takabayashi thought about it for a bit, but was intrigued by the idea. “Sure, but I’ve never practiced kendo before” Even though he said that, he couldn’t actually _remember_ if he had. As had happened earlier, his past was hidden from him and the headaches started to come back.

“The armour is in the back there, I’ll help you put it on” Toshiyuki announced. He was becoming more talkative when it was about a topic he enjoyed.

Eventually the two walked back out with Takabayashi holding the helmet by his waist.

Hoshi smiled when she saw him “It suits you” she actually blushed a little bit as she realised why the other girls found him attractive.

Toshiyuki stood opposite Takabayashi and Hoshi handed him her shinai. He grasped the hilt in the hind and tightened his grip. He swung it around a bit to get a feel for the weight of sword and eventually mimicked the stance that Toshiyuki had. It was at this point that his vision started to go blurry. He tried to focus on the sword but it was as if the world was fading to black. He faintly heard Hoshi yell “Begin!” but that was the last he could remember of the fight. When he came to Toshiyuki was on the ground with his shinai across the floor from him. Takabayashi wondered what had happened… what was he doing just sitting there…? That was when he noticed that he had his own sword pointing toward the downed Toshiyuki. Had he fought…? And more to the point, had he won…?

He looked around the kendo club’s section of the gym and everyone that was practicing was stood there staring at him. All of them with a shocked look on their face. He then turned to look at Hoshi, who, like the rest, had a shocked look on her face. Finally, he looked back down at Toshiyuki who was still sitting there, probably with the same expression; it was hard to tell with the guard covering his face.

Takabayashi just stood there before he began to feel faint again. However this time it came on much faster and heavier than it was before. So much so that it caused him to completely collapse. By the time he came to, Hoshi and Toshiyuki had propped him up against the wall and taken most of the armour off of him.

“Are you alright? What happened?” Hoshi asked

“Ugh… I’m fine… I think…”

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?” He answered Toshiyuki with another question

“Beat me. I’ve never seen anyone move with that speed and precision and with such an eloquent manner.”

“You said you hadn’t practiced kendo before, right?” Hoshi added

Takabayashi raised his hand to his head; his head still hurting.

“I can’t remember…” he said quietly

“Can’t remember? What do you mean?”

Hoshi noticed that Takabayashi was still in a fair amount of pain and stopped the aggravated Toshiyuki from asking any more questions.

“Are you sure you’re feeling alright? You were like this earlier too…”

Takabayashi managed to stand up “Yeah… If I just go home and rest I should be fine”

Hoshi gave a concerned look before replying “…Fine, just be safe on your way home. If you need anything just let me know; you can message me whenever you want”

He was able to smile briefly and said thanks before leaving the gym.

As he was walking toward the school’s front gate he heard a commotion in one of the small courtyards. He naturally walked over to see what the commotion was, even though his head was still a mess.

“What’s going on…? A fight?” He wondered as he was getting closer to where the noises were coming from. Finally he could see the two figures that were, as he thought, fighting. He was having trouble focusing on anything where the headaches were still bad, yet he could just about make out some of the basic features of the two. One was tall with long dark hair and the other was about average height. The strange thing though was that the tall one wasn’t wearing the blue Aosaka uniform. It was black with red highlights, other than that though he couldn’t make much else out. He just stood there as the two fought, he was in too much pain and the combination of shock and fear made him freeze. In the end he hid behind a pillar and watched the fight play out. The tall one grabbed the Aosaka student by his collar and with no effort at all lifted him up off of the ground with one hand. With the other he reached around behind him and pulled something out from under the bottom of his blazer. The bright steel reflected the evening sun and shone directly into Takabayashi’s eyes. Whilst regaining his vision he realised what it was. A combat knife. The wielder lifted it up and in one swift motion slashed it across the shorter student’s throat. The crimson blood sprayed out across the attacker and the courtyard as the body went limp. He let the knife fall to his side as he dropped the body. It hit the ground with a thud. The blood dripped from the knife’s tip onto the floor. There was no reflection now. And this was no longer a typical school day.

 

~ To Be Continued ~


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takabayashi tries to understand what happened yesterday... did he really see someone killed before his very eyes...? Though the most troubling thing for him today would be a surprise maths test.

Before he realised it he was running. Running as fast as he could, straight towards the school gate. If that was real, if that guy had just been killed right in front of him… what would he do…? Every time Takabayashi’s foot hit the ground his head shook causing the excruciating pain to come back. His surroundings were a complete blur as he continued to run until he reached the safety of his own home. He closed the door behind him and leant back on it, breathing in gasps of air. As he stood there his headache began to fade so he was able to think clearer. He brought up one hand to cover his face which had a complete look of shock and disbelief. Images of what he just saw flashed in his mind; the knife, the blood, and the expression of the boy who had his life taken from him on fell swoop.

“That expression was too emotional for all of this to be in my mind” Takabayashi spoke aloud. “So… he really did die…” he was adamant that someone had been killed in front of him, but there was still some doubt, after all, he wasn’t in the best mental state at the time. Eventually he decided he’s message Hoshi and ask her, since she would have definitely seen the aftermath when they left the kendo club.

[Did you see anything… unusual… on your way out of school?]

A couple of seconds went by before Takabayashi’s phone lit up with the reply

{Nope, everything was normal.}

{Are you feeling better now?}

There was that caring nature again. Takabayashi thought about what he’d just saw, or, now thought he saw and realised how ridiculous it was for him to have actually thought that was real, but then again, the face of the boy who died, it was the only thing that was properly clear in his mind. He walked straight into his bedroom and flopped onto the bed. With everything that had happened he fell asleep almost instantly. When the alarm went off the next morning he’d realised that he hadn’t even gotten out of his uniform before sleeping.

 

~                                                                      ~                                                                                  ~

 

“That’s the third one this year” A dark blue haired boy with glasses stated. He was standing in the Aosaka student council room along with Kaede, Hoshi, Toshiyuki and a few others.

“They’re becoming more frequent... so, what do we do?” Hoshi responded, in a more serious tone than she would normally speak with.

“We can’t still take a ‘do nothing’ attitude” The blue haired boy stated, all of these being directed toward Kaede, who was sitting down at the table in deep thought.

After a significant period of silence Kaede finally spoke; “And you’re sure the transfer student saw it?” She looked at Hoshi awaiting a response.

“I believe so, but why is that important? You’ll just change everyone’s memories like you normally do right?”

“I’ve already done so, as well as everyone else in the school. Nobody but us will remember Tatsuya-kun”

Hoshi looked at the ground “I hate this part.”

There was another brief period of silence

“This can’t go on. We need to go on the attack; strike back at Tachikawa.”

“They’re getting impatient; they’ll find it eventually, you know? That sword.” The blue haired boy added.

“As long as we don’t know where it is, they don’t. You know as well as I do that we’ve got everyone possible looking for it, Ryo-kun”

“As for our stance on Tachikawa, we continue the way we were. Without the sword our powers are no match for theirs

 

~                                                                      ~                                                                                  ~

 

Takabayashi got changed out of the previous day’s uniform, took a shower, got changed and had something to eat; pretty much your average start to the morning. However the image of the boy who possibly died yesterday just wouldn’t leave his mind, it was all he could think about, so much so that he hadn’t realised how long it’d taken to get ready and was now running late. He slipped his shoes on and ran out of the door of his apartment. He lived alone, so there wasn’t anyone to remind him of the time.

As Takabayashi ran down the street, the wind that blew through his hair also caused the light pink petals of the sakura trees to float around creating an almost magical setting. Getting lost in the beauty of it his pace began to slow, he’d kind of accepted that he was going to be late, a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt, though being late on your second day isn’t exactly the best thing. He laughed a little as he thought of how Hoshi would undoubtedly yell at him later, he got the sense that she was the type that was strict about the school rules.

Through the pink mist there was a figure standing there, and he too was enjoying the sight of the sakura trees. It took him a little while but Takabayashi soon noticed that the boy was also a student at Aosaka and not only that, it was someone he knew. From the back it was hard to tell but as he turned around his deep green eyes made him unmistakeable. Endo stood there with a sullen look on his face despite being surrounded by such beauty, Takabayashi called out to him and there was a look of surprise on his face before he turned to face in the opposite direction.

“What was that about…?” Takabayashi wondered as he picked up his pace to reach his underclassman

Now that he was close up he could see that there were tears in Endo’s eyes.

“What’s the matter?” he asked with a gentle tone.

“…it’s nothing” the brown haired boy replied, wiping away the tears from his eyes.

“I’m fine, really”

You could tell by his voice this wasn’t true, but it if Endo didn’t want him to know what the problem was, then Takabayashi wouldn’t push him to give an answer. It’s not really that surprising, they barely knew each other after all. Endo lowered his gaze to the ground clearly showing how he was still feeling down as an awkward silence began to form. To break the silence Takabayashi tried to make some small talk;

“Where’s Hoshi? Did she leave before you?” He guessed that this was true but asked anyway just to try and get a conversation going.

“Yeah…” He trailed off and under his breath finished with “…like she always does…” The look in Endo’s eyes was a mix of sadness, guilt and anger; it looked like he was going to tear up again.

The comment took Takabayashi by surprise, he assumed they’d go to school together every day, being brother and sister, and especially with her caring nature. She seemed like she would be the perfect older sister… maybe they didn’t get along as well as they make out to be…

Realising again how late they were Takabayashi was anxious to get moving again, but there was no way he was going to leave Endo behind in this state of sadness so he grabbed Endo’s hand and led him toward one of the sakura trees on a small grass verge and sat down. The brown haired boy’s cheeks flushed red slightly as the warmth of Takabayashi’s hand mixed with the coldness of his own. Takabayashi ushered Endo to sit down next to him underneath the tree.

“We’ll stay here until you feel better, ok?”

Endo gave a small nod in agreement. He wasn’t used to being shown such kindness and having someone care about him this much, just having someone take notice of him was enough to bring him to tears again. This time Takabayashi couldn’t not ask what was wrong.

“Please tell me what’s wrong, I want to be able to help if I can” He looked on earnestly toward the younger boy.

“…” Endo wouldn’t reply at first, he was unsure if he could trust someone he’d only known for a day with the problem that had been hanging of him for a while now. “I’m sure if I explain some parts… that’d be ok… I hope…” he thought to himself before beginning to explain himself to his senpai.

“…It’s my family… Hoshi included… I’m… separated from them I guess… my parents don’t like me too much… considering how perfect my sister is…”

“That’s harsh” Takabayashi thought to himself, but he could understand how he would be in his sister’s shadow; she is pretty much perfect.

“and that’s why she leave’s before you…?”

Endo shook his head, but refused to give the real reason, he couldn’t… he just couldn’t bear to tell someone the truth… but the truth hurt… and tears began to roll down his cheeks as he looked down at the grass moving in the wind. Takabayashi wanted so desperately to console him. The black haired boy moved his hand to Endo’s cheek to wipe away a tear and then wrapped his arm around his junior’s shoulder, pulling him close into a hug. The brown haired boy blushed again, but smiled gently as he looked up toward Takabayashi. The two sat like that for a while before Takabayashi got up and held his hand out to Endo to help him up.

“We should probably get going to school, we’re really late now” Takabayashi laughed slightly as he finished.

“Yeah, I guess” the other boy replied as he gently took the outstretched hand.

Once again Takabayashi wrapped his arm around Endo’s shoulder and they both began walking to school.

“Maybe… maybe I can tell him… maybe I can tell Takabayashi-Senpai the truth…” was the only thought going through Endo’s mind as they walked.

 

~                                                                      ~                                                                                  ~

 

By the time the two reached school it was already morning break, Endo waved goodbye to Takabayashi as he went off to his classroom and smiled as he did so.

“He has such a cute smile” Takabayashi thought to himself, and this happy face stayed with him as he made his way towards his own classroom. However it was soon replaced with a more sinister face. The one of the boy who Takabayashi thought he saw die yesterday. Once again it began to haunt him. Just to ensure that he had indeed imagined it he stopped by the area of school where he was sure it happened. He stopped at the exact same place as and looked out onto the area where blood had soaked the soil creating a carpet of crimson. Yet there was nothing. No sign that someone had died; no blood, no sign of a struggle. Nothing.

“This settles it then” Takabayashi said aloud, talking to himself. He was now one hundred percent sure that what he had seen was a result of his headaches. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued on his way to classroom.

As he slid the door open Hoshi was on him like a hawk.

“How can you be late!? It’s your second day!!” she yelled at him, calling the attention of all the students in the classroom.

“I was right, then.” He thought so himself, and nearly even laughed, but stopped himself sensing that this probably wouldn’t help the situation.

There were various murmurs from the other students watching.

“Here she goes again.” And “She takes being class rep way too seriously.” The latter being loud enough for her to hear. She turned and shot a glance toward the student who’d opened his big mouth and this swiftly shut him up.

“Anyway…” She continued. “I covered for you, told Kimura-Sensei you were still suffering from those headaches. But don’t expect me to do it again.”

“Thanks, I promise I won’t be late again.”

She grinned mischievously and added “Don’t make a girl a promise, if you know you can’t keep it”

Meanwhile Teito and Toshiyuki had come up to the two of them.

“Morning, Taka-kun!” Teito exclaimed in his ever energetic voice.

“Good morning” he replied awkwardly, realising that most of the morning had actually already gone by now.

“Did I miss anything?”

“Only the maths test next period” Toshiyuki stated, in a tone almost the exact opposite of Teito’s

“Yeah, Sensei sprung it on us earlier, annoying huh?” Teito continued.

“Well it shouldn’t be that bad if you study well” Hoshi replied.

“Not everyone’s as gung-ho about school as you are though…” Teito said and grinned.

“Ugh that’s my least favourite subject… maybe I can just ski-“ Takabayashi wasn’t able to finish his sentence before Hoshi swiftly hit him on the top of the head with her shinai.

“You’ve already skipped lessons today, I won’t allow you to miss anymore!” Hoshi sternly added as the student rubbed his head trying to feel if her sword had left a bump.

“Anyway, you’d better sit down, class is about to start” she continued.

 

~                                                                      ~                                                                                  ~

 

After suffering the excruciatingly long maths test it was finally lunch break and Takabayashi just collapsed on his desk after having all the life sucked out of him from the maths test.

“Oiiii~ Sensei, the new student’s dead!” Teito called out with a laugh as he approached Takabayashi, to which the near dead student just groaned.

“You still haven’t picked a club, right Taka-kun?” Hoshi asked.

“Yeah… that’s right…”

“Heee~ then why don’t you drop by the music club, you can see drumming skills!” Teito’s face lit up when he thought about being able to show off one his few skills.

“The archery club is also practicing at lunch today, so go see them afterward” Hoshi advised.

Takabayashi sluggishly got out of his chair and followed Teito who led him down to the ground floor where the music room was. The room took Takabayashi by surprise, it was much larger than the regular class rooms, with a stage at the far end of the room. As he looked around he noticed a profession lighting system hanging from the ceiling.

“Do you perform a lot of concerts here or something?” he asked inquisitively.

“Hmm not really, but apparently Aosaka used to produce a lot of good talent. There was an award winning musician who taught here for some years. She even got funding for all this. At least, that’s what I hear; she left way before we were ever here. Now we’re just like any regular music club, though we probably have better equipment and instruments than most.” Teito explained.

“I see…” Takabayashi was still looking around the room looking at all of the instruments dotted around. There were at least a dozen guitars of different types hanging off of one wall, and on the opposite side a vast array of brass and woodwind instruments. And at the back of the room was Teito’s precious drum kit.

Teito sat down on the stool and picked up the drum sticks and gave Takabayashi a solo piece.

“Did you compose it yourself?” Takabayashi asked since he didn’t recognise the piece.  
“Yup, this is what I do when I get bored.” He answered.

“Is there anything you’re drawn to in here?”

Takabayashi looked around the room again but the only thing that took his interest was the large grand piano that took centre stage. He walked over to stage and climbed the steps and approached the beautiful instrument.

“Ahh, that’s a Yamaha CF III, it went out of production 15 years ago, so it’s pretty rare. It still produces a great sound though.”

With the lid open, Takabayashi sat down on the piano stool and placed his fingers on the keys and went on to play classical piece of music, unlike what Teito had just played. Teito stood there in disbelief as he listened to elegant piece being played. Takabayashi lifted his foot off of the sustain pedal slowly as he let the final note fade out. By now a small audience had gathered from those who had heard the music being played. As the black haired boy lifted his hands from the piano the other students burst into applause. As Takabayashi just now noticed those who had gathered, he looked over the crowd and spotted a familiar face. Endo was peaking around the door and looked nervous. As their eyes met Endo blushed and ran off, however before he could chase after him Teito came up to Takabayashi.

“Wow… I didn’t know you could play like that! How long have you been playing!?”

“It’s nothing really…” Takabayashi said awkwardly, trying to be modest. “Wait… when did I learn?” he thought to himself. He couldn’t remember… his mind had just gone completely blank. “Fainting and amnesia huh…? I should probably go see a doctor…”

“Hm? What’s wrong?” Teito asked.

“Ah, nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Mmh, if you say so… You’re off to see the archery club next right?”

“Yeah, I guess.” He wasn’t really paying attention but was more focused on his loss of memory when Endo’s face popped into his mind. “I should probably go and find him… but he ran away… either way I should clear this up soon.” He thought.

“You’d better hurry, lunch is nearly over and Hoshi’ll hit ya again if you haven’t gone”

His head still hurt from when she hit him earlier “maybe that’s why I can’t remember” Takabayashi laughed to himself before rushing off to the archery club.

It wasn’t all that far since the music room was on the ground floor. Takabayashi slid the dojo door open slowly and stepped in quietly trying not to disturb anyone who may be concentrating. Looking around there was only one student here practicing. “Maybe Hoshi was wrong about the club meeting today…?” he thought. The young looking student slid an arrow out of the quiver and drew it in his bow. He pulled the string back, took a deep breath and let the arrow loose. It sped across the training ground and hit the target, just missing the inner ring. The deep red headed boy wiped away some sweat from his forehead with a towel before noticing that Takabayashi had been watching him. He blushed a little before walking over. Takabayashi noticed how odd a hair colour he had, yet another student who looks like they’ve dyed their hair. However this wasn’t the first thing that was most noticeable about the young boy; his eyes were a glistening golden colour.

“Ah… can I help you…?”

“Uhh” Takabayashi was taken aback by the beauty of the young boy’s eyes that he couldn’t respond properly.

“Oh, sorry, I should introduce myself, I’m Ichimura Kanata.”

“Ah, I’m Takabayashi, I just transferred in.”

“Ah so you’re touring the clubs right? I only did that a few weeks ago when I started” Kanata pointed at his green tie. The ties in Aosaka represented what year you were in; Green for first years, blue for second and red for third.

“Sorry to disappoint, but Amane-Senpai; the Captain, has gone for lunch. So I’m the only one here.”

“He left you behind?”  
“Nope, I just want to get better quickly, so I’m using all my time to practice. Oh, come over here and have a go.” Kanata showed Takabayashi to the stand and gave him an archery glove and bow along with a quiver of arrows.

“Give it a try, we need new members, it’s only me and Senpai here now…”

There was a hint of sadness behind that as if something had happened to the archery club. “I’m probably just overthinking.”

Takabayashi picked up the bow and as he did so the dizzy spells from yesterday started to come back. “Not again….” He thought before drawing the bow. He took careful aim at the target and then let the arrow go. It flew at incredible speed before hitting the target perfectly in the centre. Takabayashi turned to see a stunned Kanata.

“Beginners luck I guess” Takabayashi said with a nervous laugh. “This seems to be a common thing…” he thought back to kendo the day before then the piano and now this… was there anything he wasn’t good at?

“You should come back when Amane-senpai’s here, he’s amazing!” Kanata exclaimed in an excited tone.

Takabayashi laughed a little before replying “I will, but make sure you take a break and eat something, you won’t get better on an empty stomach!”

As he turned to leave he noticed some photos hung up on the wall along with some trophies that the club had one. A grim look came over Takabayashi as he looked at the photos. The photo he saw had a group of students in their archery gear posing next to each other. It would seem like a normal photo to anyone else. But to Takabayashi it shook him to his very core. There, standing in the middle, was a face Takabayashi recognised. The face of the boy who died in front of him the day before.

 

~                                                                      ~                                                                                  ~

 

“No… No…. that can’t be right… it was just a dream… I…” He was freaking out now. Now he was certain that he had witnessed someone die in front of him. This wasn’t the only thing freaking him out, the worst part of it was that someone had covered it up. “Am I the only one who knows about this…?” He thought to himself.

“Hey, Kanata-kun, it’s just you and Amane-Senpai in the archery club right?”

“Y-yeah, it’s just us… why?”

“Hmmm… no reason” Takabayashi didn’t ask further in case Kanata was involved in all this somehow. He looked at the photo again and saw that the names of the students were written underneath them.

“Rikiya Tatsuya huh?”

“Well… I’ll leave you to it, Kanata-kun”

“O-ok, see you later…”

As Takabayashi left Kanata pulled his phone out and sent a message to someone. As he locked the phone the bell rang for the end of lunch.

Takabayashi sat through the next lessons not paying attention. All he thought about was Tatsuya… he finally had a name to put to the face. And now it seemed that people had forgotten about him, even though he certainly would have been known in the archery club. “The way Kanata replied did seem awfully suspicious…” Takabayashi thought. As he contemplated over how best to find out what happened he figured the best thing was to go speak to someone who should know all of the students; the student council president, Kaede.

 

~                                                                      ~                                                                                  ~

 

Kaede’s phone lit up with a message. She read the name and saw it was from the new first year, Kanata-kun. At first she was going to dismiss it since she had a lot of work to do, but the description meant that she couldn’t. It simply read as “HE KNOWS”. Kaede knew she had to take some form of action now, so went over to the intercom system and turned it on and off three times. It’s a subtle use of the system that most people wouldn’t notice unless you were listening for it. It didn’t take long before people began to show up in the student council’s room. Hoshi, Toshiyuki, Ryo, Kanata, Amane and a few others.

“Hoshi, you said the transfer student didn’t know about Tatsuya right?”

“Yeah, I threw him off the scent.”

“So, what makes you so sure he know, Kanata?”

All eyes turned to the first year who was now quite clearly nervous.

“H-he saw Tatsuya in a photo in the archery club… and his reaction…”

“I get it.” Kaede responded.

“So, if he saw and didn’t forget… doesn’t that mean he’s one of us?” a voice called out.

“And you’re sure your memory wipe applied to him too?” Ryo asked.

“Certain” Kaede replied.

“Then he’s definitely one of them… Tachikawa’s spies… we need to… get rid of him.” A boy in the corner exclaimed, he looked to be the mysterious and unsociable type, hardly surprising given what he’s suggesting.

“You can’t!” Hoshi yelled “I won’t believe he’s with them. He’s far too kind for that.”

“It’s just a farce. For all you know it was him who killed Tatsuya!” The mysterious boy retorted with.

“You’re wrong Akira! You’re just wrong!” Hoshi was on the verge of tears thinking about having to kill her new friend.

“We’re not doing anything until we have evidence he’s with Tachikawa.” Toshiyuki added in his monotonous voice.

“Hmph” Akira just made that noise before looking to Kaede for a solution.

“We leave it for now. Just make sure that he doesn’t learn anything more.” Kaede ordered.

“Tch.” Akira, now pissed off, walked out of the room.

“You’d all best get back to class, before anyone gets suspicious.”

 

~                                                                      ~                                                                                  ~

 

As the final lesson ended Takabayashi got up from his seat and left promptly without speaking to any of his new friends. He needed to speak to Kaede as soon as possible and get this whole mess sorted out. As he crossed over from one building to another he heard someone run up behind him. And then nothing. The world had gone dark. He felt himself hit the floor and start to be dragged off somewhere, but the impact caused him to lose consciousness.

As he woke up he felt groggy, his senses not fully returned to him yet. He tried to survey the situation but to no avail. Someone had out a blindfold over him. As he tried to move he soon realised that was bound to a chair. He flailed, trying to loosen the restraints but there was no luck. He was stuck here, where ever here was. As he gave up trying he heard footsteps; there was someone else here. Just as he was about to call out to the person he felt a sharp point pressed against his throat and a small trickle of blood fall down his neck.

“Now then, you’re going to tell me everything you know.”

 

 

**To be continued….**


End file.
